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You may have stood on a cliff or peered from a high building and noticed something odd: not fear exactly, but a strange, almost electric awareness in your feet. Michelle Spear, a professor of anatomy, explains that what feels like buzzing or subtle heaviness in your feet is actually your nervous system recalibrating your balance in real time.
It’s not vertigo or a fear response. Instead, your brain is turning up the sensitivity in the soles of your feet, reading tiny shifts in pressure and sway with extraordinary precision. And although this happens to everyone, only some of us become consciously aware of it, turning a hidden survival mechanism into a peculiar sensation.
We’re also looking at how the UK has launched the first human trials of an mRNA bird flu vaccine, marking a major step forward in pandemic preparedness.
Finally, a new article examines the hidden psychological toll of “moral injury” at work, and how corporate culture during times of crisis can leave lasting ethical and emotional scars on employees.
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Clint Witchalls
Senior Health Editor
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Anton Gvozdikov/Shutterstock.com
Michelle Spear, University of Bristol
That strange buzzing in your feet at heights isn’t fear, it’s your nervous system doing something quietly remarkable.
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SvetikovaV/ Shutterstock
Roja Hadianamrei, University of Portsmouth
This latest trial hopes to test the vaccine in people who are most at risk of acquiring bird flu.
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KieferPix/Shutterstock
Ebru Işıklı, University College Dublin
Careers and caring don’t always align.
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World
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Julia Buxton, Liverpool John Moores University
Delcy Rodríguez has maintained tight control of political conditions inside the country, while prioritising economic liberalisation.
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Politics + Society
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Nye Davies, Cardiff University
It was once unthinkable – and former first minister Eluned Morgan losing her seat added to the party’s catastrophic result.
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Thomas Lockwood, York St John University; Alia Middleton, University of Surrey; Bettina Petersohn, Swansea University; Ceri Fowler, University of Oxford; Hannah Bunting, University of Exeter; Karl Pike, Queen Mary University of London; Louise Thompson, University of Manchester; Marc Collinson, Bangor University; Murray Leith, University of the West of Scotland; Stephen Clear, Bangor University; Tim Bale, Queen Mary University of London
What do the results mean for Labour – and is it the end of two-party politics in the UK?
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Ali Rahman, University of Leeds; Phill Wheat, University of Leeds
Road condition is the top issue for many voters in local elections – but simply filling potholes does not add life to roads.
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Stephen Coleman, University of Leeds
‘Out with the old’ was the prevailing sentiment of the 2026 local elections.
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Arts + Culture
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Freya Gowrley, University of Bristol
As celebrity shrinking dominates the red carpet, the Met’s Costume Art exhibition bucks the trend with body shapes that signal acceptance and inclusion.
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Anna Walker, The Conversation
Our picks for this week include two striking exhibitions and Japan’s highest-grossing live-action film of all time.
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Catherine Baker, University of Hull; Amy Skinner, York St John University
At one point in Eurovision’s history, all instruments present in a song had to be on stage.
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Ben Mayfield, Lancaster University
The documentary explains how the English and Welsh culture of access differs from that of close neighbours like Scotland.
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Environment
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Katryna Niva, Duke University; Alireza Merikhi, Duke University; Nicolas Cassar, Duke University
Scientists are taking to the seas with new equipment to measure how much carbon the oceans are storing.
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Aditya Narayanan, University of Southampton; UNSW Sydney; Alberto Naveira Garabato, University of Southampton; Alessandro Silvano, University of Southampton
In the Antarctic, things may be unfolding faster than climate models predicted – new study.
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Fiona Cross, University of Canterbury
These little predators are on tiny missions to seek and destroy mosquitoes, especially ones full of blood.
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Laurie Parsons, Royal Holloway, University of London
Recognising the power and subjectivity of the lenses through which we observe and narrate the climate reveals new ways to make positive change.
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Edward Forman, University of Southampton; Zoë Thomas, University of Southampton
From blood to mud: medical tech that once studied viruses and tumours now analyses ancient mud and ice to look for environmental changes.
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Health
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Rachel Woods, University of Nottingham; University of Lincoln
Peas can be a good source of protein, fibre and micronutrients.
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Science + Technology
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Jacqueline Boyd, Nottingham Trent University
How animals respond to death.
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Viraj Nair, University of East London
What is emerging is not the end of trust but its reconfiguration.
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2 March - 30 September 2026
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3 March - 15 May 2026
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Glasgow
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